At least eight civilians were killed in the brazen attack and dozens were injured as the Taliban deny their involvement.
A barrage of rockets slammed into the heavily fortified Green Zone where many embassies and international companies are located in the Afghan capital Kabul, killing at least eight civilians and wounding dozens more on Saturday.
Tariq Arian, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said that “terrorists” mounted the rockets on a small truck and detonated them, adding that an investigation was underway to find out how the vehicle entered the city undetected.
“According to initial information, eight people were martyred and another 31 were injured,” Arian said, noting that the final number would change.
Kabul police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz confirmed the same tolls and details.
Some residents filmed the projectiles that were launched and posted them on social media. Several images circulating on Facebook showed damaged cars and a hole in the side of a building.
The Taliban fighters, who are fighting a foreign-backed Kabul administration, denied involvement in the attack, saying they “do not fire blindly in public places.”
“The rocket attack in the city of Kabul has nothing to do with the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, using the insurgents’ name for Afghanistan.
The bombardment sent blaring warning sirens from embassy precincts and came two days before a major donor conference for Afghanistan in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Interior Ministry also said that two small “sticky bomb” explosions had been reported early Saturday, including one that struck a police car, killing one police officer and wounding three others.
Police officers stand guard after rockets hit residential areas in Kabul on Saturday [Omar Sobhani/Reuters]
Since peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban stalled, attacks by the Afghan government and other armed groups have been on the rise, especially in the capital, which is home to more than five million Afghans.
Officials told the AFP news agency on Friday that a breakthrough in the negotiations was expected to be announced in the coming days. The US State Department announced Friday night that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would meet with Taliban and Afghan government negotiators in Qatar on Saturday.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to end “wars for good”, including in Afghanistan, the longest conflict in US history that began with an invasion to dislodge the Taliban after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon said it would soon withdraw some 2,000 troops from Afghanistan, speeding up the schedule set in a February agreement between Washington and the Taliban that calls for a full US withdrawal by mid-2021.
In the past six months, the Taliban carried out 53 suicide attacks and 1,250 bombings that killed 1,210 civilians and injured 2,500 others, Arian said this week.
Earlier this month, several gunmen stormed the Kabul University campus, killing at least 35 people, mostly students, and wounding more than 50 more.
The attack was claimed by ISIL (ISIS), but the Afghan government said the ultraviolent Haqqani network of the Taliban was responsible.
US President-elect Joe Biden, at a rare point of agreement with Trump, also advocates ending the war in Afghanistan, although analysts believe he will not be as committed to a fast schedule.
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